the van houten
❝the new order❞
The name "van Helsing" is a very popular one, but mistakenly so. Though a cheered character, Abraham van Helsing, is predominantly known as a vampire hunter. This fame was however achieved through lies, taking as his the victories of the families of Eliminators (previously known among the Damned as "The Ciphers"). Abraham van Helsing was not an extraordinary hunter as he made others believe, but a great writer can turn a lie more believable than truth. The glories of other families soon began to be takne under his name and available to all humans, unaware of the existence of the Damned. Of course, the situation endangered families as the secret of Eliminators and Damned began to be revealed. Unfortunately, the creatures from below quickly caught on the works of "fiction" and began to associate van Helsing to the real hunters. This forced families to divide and go on separate ways to assure their survival and so future Eliminators could continue to exist throughout the years.
The van Houten, a family that remained in the Netherlands, were a strong, ancient lineage that always fought off the Damned, making sure humans could sleep safe at night, making sure that their souls weren't devoured neither would their dreams be stolen. Later, misfortune struck a fraction of the van Houten living in Rotterdam, when a Damned attacked the sleeping family. Peter, Sofie, Kasper and Hubert died, but the two daughters survived. The younger one, Iza, had her left eye ripped off and replaced with the Damned's with the intent of Cursing her, and Amanda was kidnapped and taken to the Underworld, the realm of the Damned.
Iza managed to escape with life, though Cursed quite visible by the ugly scar and an eye filled with darkness. She was able to flee to Belgium by hitch-hiking a lot and from there, she sneaked into a cargo boat to the United Kingdom, where she met with the Willows, a family that was friends with hers. They quickly took her in after they discovered what had happened, but she didn't stay for long, travelling to America as soon as she recovered, knowing there was a Door (a portal to the Underworld) about to open in Springfield, Illinois. There, she failed to reach the Door before it closed, but she managed to pull out a Trapped, a soul that belonged to a human in a coma. Unfortunately for the soul, his body was unplugged soon after and he was forced to wander aimlessly. However, because Iza did try to save him, the spirit began to help her search for open Doors, being able to travel through every realm without being neither seen nor felt.
While she waited, Iza continued to hide her identity as a van Houten but she ended up being discovered by a couple of Damned. By then, she had found how to turn her Curse to her advantage and with her new found powers, she was able to defeat them. Nevertheless, the powers the Curse granted her were far too frightening and draining for her to use them constantly, so she kept hiding to avoid direct combat.
After a year, the Trapped spirit managed to find a Door soon to be opened in Miami. As soon as she heard of this, she went to Florida and began to search for the Door. Eventually, she found it with the help of her left eye, and managed to go through it. In the Underworld, she fought her way to her sister, who was already an unhuman, but she pulled her out of the grim place and back to the world above.
With Amanda back, the two began on a quest to find the Damned that killed their family, fuelled by revenge, destroying those from below that tried to stand in their way.
❝the van houten❞
❚izabella van houten.
Iza was the youngest middle child. She was pampered by her two older siblings as a kid, and had a tight bond with them. While still young, her musical talent was discovered and her mother Sofie, a piano teacher herself, began to pay special attention to the child. As she grew, she showed potential to join the Eliminators and so began to be supervised by Amanda, who by that time was already an outstanding one herself. When tragedy clashed upon the family, she was barely fifteen. She had her left eye ripped out and, so that it could Curse her, the Damned took out his own eye and blended it with the hole in Iza's face. He miscalculated the Curse, however, and the eye ended up providing her powers, which mainly involved seeing things that weren't there (such as Doors, spirits, commonly known as ghosts, seeing things in the dark), manipulating the Cipher, the "energy" that the Damned use, and other more obscure tricks. However, this both exhausts and terrifies her, given as she thinks she slowly becomes a Damned herself the more she uses her powers, so Iza avoids using her eye except for the Seeing it offers. But if necessary, she will reveal the part of the Damned stored inside of her.
❚amanda van houten.
The oldest of the van Houten children, Amanda showed enormous potential to become an Eliminator since she was a toddler, later standing among those that were taken as the Champions of the Eliminators. She ended up inheriting the van Houten blade and she vowed to use it to destroy the Damned but above all, to guard her family. Just like everyone else, Amanda was caught unprepared when misfortune visited the van Houten house that evening. She was taken by Gilfaethwy to the Underworld and there she went through a painful metamorphosis from human to underhuman. Fortunately for her, Iza was able to rescue her before the transformation was complete - an impressive feat for the woman's unbreakable soul, proving her said potential. The van Houten blade was lost in the Underworld, but she was able to grab the Damned's blade instead when they were leaving. The sword, made out of dark matter from the Underworld, fused with Amanda and she can now evoke it either out of her body or use it as part of her. Because she is an unhuman today, she needs to feed off of souls or else she'll weaken and perish. While she is reluctant to drink humans, she doesn't think twice before attacking a Damned to take its soul.
❚peter van houten.
Deceased. Since a young age, Peter carried a heavy responsibility that came with the name van Houten. However, he was able to live up to it with his immense talent. His great-grandfather, Rodolf van Houten, was the forger of the van Houten blade, a sword made in secret and one of the most terrible enemies of the Damned, since it was strong enough to destroy a Damned, should it be held by a Champion. Peter himself was one and he inherited the blade from his father, but when time came, he handed it to Amanda.
❚sofie van houten.
Deceased. Before marrying Peter, Sofie was part of the Nieuwenhuis family, a well-known fraction of Eliminators. However, soon after meeting Peter during of the encounters, they began to date and a couple years after, they got married. During their early years, they worked together to banished the Damned from Earth, but when she got pregnant with Amanda, she decided to quit instead, working as a music teacher at a local elementary school.
❚kasper van houten.
Deceased. Kasper was the second born of the van Houten and a bit of a rebel. He was named after Sofie's grandfather, one of the most famous Eliminator, and the boy himself seemed to be taking the same path as his late great-grandfather. Unlike Amanda, however, his potential only showed when he hit puberty, but he soon caught up with her, fighting side by side with his older sister. Much like her, he took great care of his younger siblings, Iza and Hubert, but also of his mother, whom he was quite close to. He was dating a girl who didn't know of the existence of neither the Eliminator nor the Damned, which was against Peter's wishes, but their personalities clashed so much that they were constantly fighting over everything. Meike Wollner, the girl he was dating, turned out to be one of Agrona's puppets, which was how the van Houten were discovered.
❚hubert van houten.
Deceased ( ? ). The youngest of the four children, Hubert was barely eleven years old when the van Houten were attacked. His body was not found with his family's, but she never told Amanda - nor anyone. She thinks he was either taken to the Underworld to be eaten by the Damned's younglings or, and she refuses to believe this, was taken to become a vessel for a putrid soul. He had a lot of potential, just like the rest of the van Houten children, but it was never really proved since he was so young.
❝the damned❞
❚agrona.
Much like the rest of the Damned, she has chosen to hide her true name, replacing it with a human one, in this case, that of a goddess of slaughter. She was the one that discovered the van Houten by using a puppet named Meike who enchanted Kasper, but she wasn't the one that attacked the family, since the information regarding their whereabouts slipped from her grasp, directly to Gilfaethwy's ears. She has the title of "Queen", a good picture of how powerful and influential she is in the Underworld, though it's well-known that she prefers to roam Earth, having multiple estates throughout the world. She took a great fancy over Amanda, mostly because she hates Leucetios's guts.
❚gilfaethwy.
Gilfaethwy (a non-name) is the Damned the van Houten sisters search for with most anger. He was the one that killed their family and imprisoned Amanda in the Underworld with the intent of making her one of Leucetios's wives. Gilfaethwy is one of the most powerful Ancients, an almost extinguished subspecies of the Damned, perhaps one of the last surviving ones from the Ark, a forgotten time when the Damned ruled the world above before being purged to the Underworld by a new order of warriors, later on addressed as the Eliminators. His sword, Caladbolg, was taken by Amanda.
❚leucetios.
Although a relatively low profile Damned among the Eliminators, Amanda learned about him in the Underworld for she was supposed to be given to him to become one of his wives. Even if there's little interest in him, Amanda wants to know why did he want her as a wife and why Gilfaethwy wanted to offer her to him - after all, an Ancient like him surely didn't need to pay any type of homage to such a low profile Damned. Nevertheless, Leucetios (another non-name) is still interested in taking her as his wife.
❝eliminators❞
❚sato noboru.
Currently one of the heads of the Eliminators, Sato is a bitter man who has lost his family to the Damned during one of their raids. He has moved to Washington, where he currently resides. Very little is known about him as he keeps a low profile even as one of the Champions, but it's known that his methods are merciless and brutal. He carries the legendary spear, Otegine, forged by his ancestors.
❚the van helsing.
Carrying the heavy burden of the name van Helsing, both father and son try to deviate from the path taken by their ancestor. They have very little potential as Eliminators, but they've taken matters into their own hands, hunting down the Damned and destroying them by their own means. The Eliminators recently gave them a chance to clean up their name, but they are really the only van Helsing willing to do so. Rodolf's wife divorced him and Hans decided to stay by his father's side.
❚the willows.
The family that took in Iza when she escaped to England. Nelson isn't an Eliminator, but Hannah is and thus it was her family name that prevailed. Marsha has potential to become one, but is instead focusing on her college career, medicine, a fully supported decision by her parents.
❝connections❞
❚hugo.
Half of a helper, the ghost was the first thing Iza was able to "control" with the affinity she has with the Cipher. He helps her out every so often when she asks him to. He's especially useful to find Doors, since he's neither here nor there, forever condemned to the limbo. Acting much alike a poltergeist, vengeful and dangerous, he has forgotten what it's like to be human.